A Patients Farewell
This story took place about 7 years ago, while I was working in a nursing home in Toronto. It was a nice small place, so it allowed us to get to know the residents well. I was booked for the third floor that night but since there had been a bad flu going around I was transfered to the second floor which was totally cronic care.
We had a patient there by the name of Sam, a sweet man in his late nineties. Sam would come to the nursing station every evening and sing a song for us. When he was a young man he had been a singer in a group. That evening Sam diden't come but we were so busy that no one ever really noticed it until break time. Dan the orderly and I were sitting at the station drinking a coffee when we suddenly saw Sam coming out of his room.Dan said look he looks differrent. And he did. He had a big smile on his face and was standing so straight, something he could not do normally. He walked about half-way out into the hallway, then stood there and smiled at us. Thinking he would come up to sing us his night song we waited, but to our surprised he simply turned around and walked back into his room.
Dan and I both looked at each other and thought something is not right here. We got up and walked to his room, where we found Sam lying on his bed. I went up to him and asked if he was ok....no reply..I slowly turned him over and saw that Sam had passed away.This really shook us up because we had just seen him not more than a few minutes ago. Then it clicked.. Sam came to say goodbye to us before he left. I later checked the coroners' report and found that Sam had died at approximately 9pm. Dan and I saw him at about 8:53 placing this a few minutes before he died. He gave us his final farewell.
Caryne
